Human Trafficking Statistics

Human trafficking statistics and information. Facts about human trafficking are collected from various public information sources, such as security agencies, criminal justice programs, research organizations and news stories.

A man from Myanmar told a reporter from the Associated Press that he was sold by a human trafficking broker to a Thailand fishing boat for $616. The man originally thought that he was going to work on the boat for 6 months, yet ended up working for over a year. During the time, the Burmese man stated that he slept for 3 hours a night.

The seafood industry in Thailand employees 2 million people and is constantly facing a labor shortage. Many Thais do not want to work on the fishing boats where the wages are low, the job is dangerous, and many boats are at sea for months and even years. To meet this shortage, an estimated 200,000 migrants from Cambodia and Myanmar are working on the boats. A 2013 survey of 600 workers conducted by the United Nations found that almost none had signed a labor contract and about 40 percent had their wages cut without explanation.

Nearly 6 out of 10 migrant workers on Thai fishing boats reported seeing a co-worker killed by the captain, according to a 2009 UN report. The man who was sold by traffickers told the AP that after a sick man died on the boat the captain simply tossed the body overboard.

The fishing industry in Thailand exported nearly $7 Billion worth of seafood in 2013. Most of the seafood was exported to Japan and the United States.

Police in Vietnam broke up a human trafficking ring where women were being sold as brides to men in China. According to media reports, the men were paying $11,800 (250 Million Vietnamese Dong) for the women in 2014.

Security experts in both countries state that the gender imbalance in China is leading to more women from neighboring countries to be trafficked. In 2013, there were 697.2 million males and 663.4 million females in China. With 33.8 million more men in the country, many men in rural areas are finding it difficult to find available women, leading to the black market in brides.

According to anti-trafficking officials in Cambodia, a woman sold a 16 year old girl from Vietnam to a man for $2,500. The woman was selling the girl’s virginity to the man, who was to meet the girl at a hotel in Cambodia. The price was for the trafficking victim to be with the “rich man” for a total of 5 days.

Security agents with the Interior Ministry in Russia arrested a Moldovan woman who was attempting to sell 4 women in central Moscow. According to the police, the woman was selling the women for $2,865 (100,000 Russian Ruble) each.

The young women from Moldova who were rescued were between the ages of 18 and 20. They each answered advertisements posted online that were offering high-paying jobs which did not exist. Once the woman were lured, their passports were taken and they were forced into prostitution.

A woman in Nigeria was arrested by anti-human trafficking unit for selling her newborn baby.

According to media reports, the woman worked as a prostitute and already had two children who were being taken care of by her mother. Due to the inability of take care of another child, the woman made arraignments with a local broker to find another woman who could buy the child.

The broker found a childless woman who paid $2650 (430,000 Nigerian Naira) for the newborn baby. The broker then paid the baby’s mother $925.

A sworn affidavit by a special agent with Homeland Security stated that gangs in Boston, Massachusetts are turning away from drug dealing and are increasing its activities in the human trafficking and prostitution markets due to its profitability.

Several experts interviewed by the Boston Herald stated that prostitution is currently the number one way for gangs to make money, surpassing drug trafficking and drug sales.

According to Homeland Security, gangs in the Boston area force girls to service clients as prostitutes and impose daily quotas of $200 to $1,000. These women who are forced to work as prostitutes are able to continually make money for the traffickers, as opposed to a one time sale for drugs.

The rise in human trafficking and prostitution activities has increased in Massachusetts are the enforcement of prostitution offenses has declined. Back in 1995, there were 2,835 arrests across Massachusetts for prostitution related crimes. In 2012, the number of arrests had fallen to 944.

According to statistics released by security agencies in Switzerland, there were 61 cases of human trafficking reported in the country in 2013. Most of the trafficking cases dealt with sexual exploitation.

The number of cases reported was lower than the 78 human trafficking cases reported in 2012. In 2012, statistics showed that people from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Thailand were the main countries of origins for human trafficking in Switzerland.

Prostitution is legal in Switzerland, with an estimated 20,000 prostitutes working in the trade. 14,000 prostitutes are properly registered with the government.

Between 2003 to 2006, child trafficking cases consisted of 20 percent of all human trafficking cases, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Between 2007 to 2010, security officials detected that children were involved in 27 percent of all human trafficking cases. In Africa and the Middle East, the cases of trafficking involving children is around two-thirds of all cases.

According to an official with Unicef, there were 1.2 million known cases of child trafficking that takes place each year, and that for every 800 victims of human trafficking, one person is convicted for the crimes.

One factor that contributes to the problems of child trafficking is the lack of official identities for many children around the world. An estimated 230 million children worldwide are born without official birth certificates, making them impossible to track.

Public security officials in Vietnam arrested a human trafficker in April 2014 who was trafficking women from Vietnam into China. According to media reports, the human trafficker was being paid $470 (10 Million Vietnamese Dong) to bring women across the Chinese border.

The human trafficking of women from Vietnam into China has been growing in recent years. Between 2009 and 2013, security agencies in China rescued over 1,800 Vietnamese women and 41 Vietnamese children that were trafficked into China. Vietnamese security agents reported stopping over 3,000 potential human trafficking victims from crossing the border into China between 2003 and 2013. In 2012 alone, Vietnam authorities rescued 1,200 victims.

Experts attribute the rise in human trafficking between the two countries to the gender inbalance in China.